


An Epilogue

by BleedingInk



Category: Supernatural
Genre: F/M, Gen, Post-Canon
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-20
Updated: 2020-11-20
Packaged: 2021-03-10 01:34:36
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 2,907
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27645551
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/BleedingInk/pseuds/BleedingInk
Summary: Castiel opens his eyes to the infinite darkness of the Empty.“Was it worth it?” a familiar voice asks him.
Relationships: Castiel & Jack Kline, Castiel/Meg Masters
Comments: 11
Kudos: 55





	1. Dreams

Castiel opens his eyes to the infinite darkness of the Empty.

“Was it worth it?” a familiar voice asks him.

This time he isn’t startled. He still feels irritated that it has chosen her face, of all the faces that could haunt him, and his chest still aches when he turns to look at It. But he doesn’t let the hope grow in him once again.

“Yes. I trust Dean. I know he will win. I know _they_ will win.”

The Shadow rolls her eyes, the eyes that look so much like Meg’s.

“That was always your problem, Castiel, wasn’t it? Always happy to bleed for the Winchesters.”

Castiel frowns. This… the Shadow has teased him before, but this somehow feels different. Softer. It’s not trying to hurt him anymore, perhaps because It knows that It has already won.

But when she smirks at him, when the stern look in her eyes softens up, he feels the hope burning once again.

“Meg?”

The demon nods and Castiel feels like he’s been punched in the gut. He moves towards her, still unsure, still expecting it to be another trick. But when he puts his arms around her and pulls her close, he knows. He knows the Shadow would never let it get this far.

He knows it’s really her.

“How?” he asks, placing his hands on her cheeks to look at her better. “How are you… awake?”

“She… It said that she needed me to be your welcome committee,” Meg explains, with a bitter chuckle. “That this time, we could stay together. So you wouldn’t wake up anymore.”

It’s bittersweet when he kisses her. It’s bittersweet that he didn’t more of it when they were both on Earth.

“Meg, I need to tell you…”

“Shh, I know, Cas,” she says, grabbing unto his trench coat. “I know.”

The darkness of the Empty doesn’t feel as cold and sterile this time, not with what passes for her body here huddled close to him.

“How will this work?”

“We sleep. We dream. All of our lives. Can you believe I remember who I was now? Before Hell,” Meg explains, in a whisper. “Maybe I’ll tell you about it. Maybe when we dream we’re together, we’ll really be together.”

Castiel hopes that is true. He kisses her fingers when she caresses his cheek and lets her hide her face in his neck. Despite it all, he doesn’t regret it. If he has to relive all the moments he regrets, all the bad he’s done, he can also relive the good moments.

He sinks his nose on her soft, blonde hair and closes his eyes.

And once again, he’s standing on a shore, watching a small fish struggle its way out of the ocean.

“Don’t step on that fish, brother,” Gabriel says, putting a hand on his shoulders. “Dad says there’s big plans for that fish.”

He remembers it all.

Those strange apes, so different and yet… so similar. The divine sparkle on them, like a mirror. They were special enough that their Father made a special place for them to thrive, to grow.

The rumors of war, of Lucifer’s rebellion. The war in Heaven, so many of his brothers and sisters perishing because they disobeyed.

The Fall: Lucifer taking one of the apes, twisting and turning it until it was a mockery of his father’s creation. Cain and Abel, the blood split on the ground and them, unable to intervene, watching it all unfold. Eve, brokenhearted after her sons death, creating monsters that wouldn’t be so easily killed.

The eons. The things Naomi made him forget: the wail of the mothers of Egypt, the man He chose to spread his message and die, the wars in His name. The orders that came, faceless and unquestionable.

“You know it’s not right, Castiel.”

“Anna… don’t do this.”

The sad smile in her face as she walked to the edge, the way she held her blade up. There is no hesitation in her body.

“I know you have doubts too. I know you love them too. Don’t you want to walk among them, to know them, to be like them?”

“No. I love them as our Father ordered us to, but what you’re saying is blasphemy. I will never see you again. Please, sister.”

Anna shakes her head slowly.

“My final order to you, Castiel: take care of them.”

She sinks the blade in her own gut. The grace spills out in rays of silver light, and there’s pain in her expression, but she doesn’t scream as her wings wither and die. She steps back, towards the rip in Heaven, and even as she jumps, he thinks he sees her smile.

He wishes he could be certain of anything as much as she was in that moment.

Hell is waiting. The hordes of demons come at them. Castiel hacks and slashes at them with no mercy. There is a mission he needs to complete. They are so close now.

He finds him standing next to a body on a rack and he fears that they are too late.

“Dean Winchester.”

He looks up at him, the bloody blade still in his hand. There’s no emotion in his face, barely a trace of humanity. But enough that Castiel can still cleanse him, that he can still save him.

This man is his mission, and he will be so much more when all is said and done, but Castiel doesn’t knows this yet.

“Who the hell are you?”

He knows the line won’t hold for long, so he doesn’t bother answering. He grabs him and runs, ascending through the cracks in Hell. Dean screams and Castiel doubts he will remember any of this. The pain of his purification will be too much.

He manages to complete his mission somehow, after years fighting the hordes of Hell to get to him. But it’s only the beginning.

Sam's hand on him.

“The boy with the demon blood,” Castiel says and despite everything he’s been told about him, about how he will be the downfall of humankind, he can’t bring himself to hate him.

He is but a boy.

“Can I tell you something, if you promise not to tell another soul?” he asks. Dean sits on the bench by his side, watching over the town he hand Sam just managed to save. He looks at him with mistrust and Castiel can’t blame him. There’s things he doesn’t know, that he can’t possibly understand. Castiel doesn’t understand it, either, why all of this, why humanity, must be gone. And that is what he means when he says to Dean what he couldn’t say to Anna: “I’m not a hammer, like you say. I have questions. I have doubts.”

Saying it out loud… it feels like everything unraveled after that moment.

His rebellion. Knowing he will never be able to come home, but convinced, oh, so completely sure that he’s doing the right thing.

And then there was her.

“We’re gonna win this, can’t you feel it?” she says, laughing cruelly in his face. “Your god may be a deadbeat, but mine? Mine walks the Earth!”

He doesn’t know how much she’ll mean to him either. He hated demons, because he thought they were nothing but corruption and hate, but she shows him differently. She shows him some of them still have enough humanity left to be able to do such human things as love.

He wants to linger in that dream a little longer, but the memories keep coming, unrelentless.

Raphael, Crowley. Another war in Heaven.

Meg’s lips on him, hot and desperate and wrong, but he doesn’t care anymore.

The blood in his hands, the hurt on Sam’s face as he takes in the pain he himself caused.

Meg’s face by his side when he wakes up. The way she softens around him, despite trying to hide how she really feels.

Purgatory, the endless fight.

Meg’s body laying on the concrete floor, bloody and bruised and Castiel knows he’s lost her forever.

Humanity and how alien it felt, how… wrong. To be so fragile and so vulnerable. He loved them before, yes, but now he’s acutely aware of how precious they truly are, of how they can be gone in an instant.

Dean’s fists raining on his face, on his body. The glint on the angel blade as he held it above him and Castiel thought he was done for, that truly this time…

Lucifer laughing at him.

“You really care for them, don’t you? You really think you can save them?”

Castiel doesn’t think so, not anymore. His arrogance has been torn to shreds, and he doesn’t believe there’s much he can do anymore. But he can try and protect them.

He can try and protect the innocent in Kelly’s womb.

“Tell me again. Tell me what you saw.”

“I saw the future. I saw a world without pain or hunger or want. I saw the world that this child… that your child will create.”

He believes it. He truly believes it. He’d almost forgotten what it was like, to have faith.

Lucifer’s blade through his chest.

The Empty, its anger, its taunting.

Jack in his arms and he knows. He knows he’s never loved anything like this child before, no Dean, nor Sam, no Meg, not even God.

The pain of losing him. The joy of having him again. The hope that, against all odds, the world he saw in his vision can become a reality.

Billie is coming towards them, her scythe makes a scratching sound against the walls. He hears banging on the door, he sees Dean dejected and defeated.

And he suddenly understands.

He understands why it was Dean he could tell his doubts to.

Dean loves like Castiel does. Like Castiel always hoped he could: completely, selflessly. And there’s peace in that. There’s happiness in knowing he can give his life for love.

“Goodbye, Dean.”

He opens his eyes to the infinite darkness of the Empty.

“Was it worth it?”

Yes. He will answer yes every time. He closes his eyes with his nose sank in Meg’s hair.

And he’s standing in front of the shoreline again, the waves crashing at his feet as a small fish struggles to reach the sand. Gabriel puts a hand on his shoulder.

“Don’t step on that fish, brother…”


	2. The Deal

“You still can’t sleep, can you?”

The Empty looks at him, furious. This time, It has chosen to take Jack’s own form, perhaps because he doesn’t need the form of the demon again.

“You woke everyone up with that trick of yours. I’m still trying to get them all, but there’s just… so many of them. And they’re so stubborn,” It complains. “I thought your father was annoying, but there’s an Archangel who just won’t stop singing…”

“Then let me take them,” Jack suggests. “Let me take all of them. The ones who are awake, and the ones who aren’t. I’ll take them somewhere else, and you can go back to sleep.”

The Empty raises Jack’s eyebrows.

“All of them?” It repeats. “You know who that includes, don’t you?”

“Yes, I am aware,” Jack replies, calmly. “I have spoken with the Queen of Hell. The Cage is waiting for him, and this time, we’ll make sure no one can open it again.”

The Empty hums, doubtful.

“And the rest?”

“I’ll take each of them where they belong. I’ll judge them, one by one. I have the time. And after I’m done, no one will ever bother you anymore.”

“I’ve heard that line before,” the Empty growls. “What makes it true this time?”

That is a fair question. Jack takes a moment to think about it, to feel around himself. He isn’t scared like the first time he woke there. He knows he stands in front of something that’s as powerful as him. He can’t force It to do what he wants and It can’t just kick him out without at least hearing him out.

“I’ll make sure of it and you know I can do it,” Jack promises It. “Give them all back, and you will never be disturbed again.”

The skepticism in his reflection melts away, replaced by a soft smile. Jack knows he offered It exactly what It needed to hear.

“Fine,” It says, extending Jack’s arm as if to embrace Its own vastness. “Let God sort them out. Where do you want to start?”

Jack doesn’t even have to think about it.

“Castiel.”

As soon as he says his name, the mirror image of him disappears, leaving him standing on Its vastness in front of two figures that slumber peacefully in each other’s arms. Jack approaches them carefully. He kneels next to Castiel and gently shakes his shoulder.

It takes a moment for him to open his eyes, to look at him, squinting.

“Jack?”

“Hello,” Jack says, smiling at his father. “I’ve come for you.”

Castiel moves, trying not to disturb the woman that sleeps by his side. She turns around and curls up, her head still resting against Castiel’s bicep and Jack is surprised to see the shadows that move right underneath her skin.

“What happened? You… you’re different,” he says, frowning.

“I’m… a lot of things happened. I’ll tell you all about it,” Jack promises. “But Chuck doesn’t have power anymore and Sam and Dean are fine. And I’m here to take you home.”

“Home?” Castiel repeats, disconcerted. Then, slowly, the realization falls on him. “You mean… Heaven.”

“Yes. I’m taking everybody home.”

Castiel almost brings himself to smile. At the last second, though, he stops himself and lowers his gaze to the demon sleeping by his side.

“I… I can’t leave her here.”

“Who is she?” Jack asks, confused. “She is…”

“She’s Meg,” Castiel explains, as if her name alone was enough of an explanation. “Please. If you can let her come with me…”

Jack can do that. He can do whatever he wants, in fact. And if it’s important to Castiel, if Castiel trusts her, then that’s enough for him too.


	3. Eternity

Meg feels the heat on her face, lips on her forehead that gently stir her awake. She expects to see the same nothingness as before when she opens her eyes, maybe the Empty’s face ready to mock her some more, to tell her the angel was never there after all and she just dreamed it, like everything else.

But she sees light. She sees the open sky over her head and feels the softness of the green grass under her hands.

Someone is holding her gently, like she hasn’t since she was a human, and she slowly turns to look.

“Clarence?” she asks, tentatively.

“It’s okay,” he reassures her, with another kiss on the edge of her lips. “It’s fine.”

He helps her to her feet, with an arm around her waist. It’s like he can’t stop touching her, like he fears she will vanish in thin air if he lets her go. Meg understands. She feels that way too, especially now. She had been… content, with dreaming, with remembering the choices that led her to Hell, and the pain and the suffering and the torture that she both gave and took.

All for the few moments when she had been happy with him, when she had been sure enough of a cause to give her life for it.

This… she doesn’t know what to do with this.

“Where exactly are we?” she asks, looking around. There’s another man standing around, a boy, really. He seems unremarkable and awkward when he raises his hand and says:

“Hello.”

Meg blinks at him, unsure of if she should wave back. She turns towards Castiel.

“You said you wanted to come here,” he points out. “That first time we met.”

Meg remembers. She feels like she’s done nothing but remembering for… she doesn’t know how long.

She blinks.

“Heaven,” she says.

How can it be? She shouldn’t be allowed up there. She knows she never should’ve expected…

“Is this real?”

“It is,” Castiel promises her.

Meg looks around. It is beautiful. If she could breathe, she would’ve been breathless. The sky is blue and infinite and the trees are forever green, nature untouched by human kind, lost in the middle of an unknown, unexplored continent. And suddenly, she recognizes it.

“I lived here. Ages ago. There is a settlement down by the river, and I lived there and I… I sold my soul for my daughter. She was sick and dying. The priest told me I was condemning myself but…”

“That’s all in the past now, Meg,” Castiel assures her.

“Yes, and don’t worry. I have some ideas for renovations,” the boy intervenes. “I’m sure you’ll like it.”

She turns towards him, still confused.

“Who are you?”

“My name is Jack,” he introduces himself. “Welcome.”

Nobody has ever welcomed her anywhere, not since she became a demon. And she still can’t quite believe she’s there. That Castiel’s hand is really on hers, squeezing her tight to make sure she knows it’s true.

“Is it everything you imagined?” the angel asks her.

Meg kisses him. Because shde needs another moment to believe it, she needs to make sure that he’s not going to fade. Cas kisses her back, softly, running his hands through her hair and she knows.

She knows she’s not dreaming anymore. He’s really there with her, forevermore.

“It’s even better.”


End file.
